Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same

ABSTRACT

A semiconductor device with three transistors of same conductive type but different threshold voltage is provided in the present invention, wherein the first transistor includes a high-k dielectric layer, a first bottom barrier metal layer, a second bottom barrier metal layer, a work function metal layer and a low resistance metal. The second transistor includes the high-k dielectric layer, the first bottom barrier metal layer, the second bottom barrier metal layer and the low resistance metal, and a third transistor on the substrate. The third transistor includes the high-k dielectric layer, the first bottom barrier metal layer and the low resistance metal.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 15/866,489,filed on Jan. 10, 2018 and entitled “SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE AND METHOD OFFABRICATING THE SAME”, which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method forfabricating the same, and more particularly, to semiconductor deviceswith same conductive type but different threshold voltages and a methodfor fabricating the same.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In current semiconductor industry, polysilicon has been widely used as agap-filling material for fabricating gate electrode ofmetal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors. However, conventionalpolysilicon gate also faced problems such as inferior performance due toboron penetration and unavoidable depletion effect which increasesequivalent thickness of gate dielectric layer, reduces gate capacitance,and worsens driving force of the devices. In replacing polysilicongates, work function metals have been developed to serve as a controlelectrode working in conjunction with high-K gate dielectric layers.

In a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device, NMOS deviceand PMOS device are provided with different work function metal (WFM)layer. It is well-known that the compatibility and the process controlsof the dual metal gates are more complicated than usual, whereas thethickness and the composition of the materials used in the dual metalgate method should be more precisely controlled. This situation is evenstricter when the gate's critical feature (CD) of semiconductortransistor is scaled down to the level below 20 nm. Several layerelements required for constituting the metal gate transistor, includingthe high-K gate dielectric, bottom barrier metal, p-type work functionmetal, n-type work function metal, top barrier metal and gate fillingmetal, can't quite fit into the gate trench in such a microscopicdimension. The problem of insufficient gate trench space restricts thethickness of the work function metal layer to be disposed therein andtheir ability of tuning the threshold voltage (V_(th)).

In addition to the problem of insufficient space for filling the gateelements, the transistors with multiple threshold voltages has becomemore and more necessary in current integrated circuit in order tooptimize the delay or power in operation. The V_(th) of a MOSFET is thegate voltage where an inversion layer forms at the interfacial betweenthe insulating layer and the substrate of the transistor. Low V_(th)devices are used in the logic where fast switching speed is important.High V_(th) devices connecting the power rails and virtual power railsare turned on in active mode, off in sleep mode, so that the High V_(th)devices are properly used as sleep transistors to reduce static leakagepower. The materials of the metal layers included in the gate transistoralways affect the work function of the NMOS or the PMOS and their V_(th)characteristics and consequently affect the performances of the product.Therefore, the semiconductor manufacturers are searching for new andbetter manufacturing method to obtain a CMOS with both the good workfunction performances and multi-threshold voltages characteristics undercurrent roadmap of semiconductor development.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following paragraphs present a simplified summary of the inventionin order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of theinvention. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of the invention.It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the inventionor to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is topresent some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the moredetailed description that is discussed later.

In order to solve the issue of insufficient filling space for metal gateelements and fulfill the requirement of transistors with multi-thresholdvoltages characteristics, it is provided in the present invention anovel design of semiconductor transistors with same conductive type butdifferent layer constitutions. The semiconductor transistors withmulti-threshold voltages are manufactured concurrently in the samesemiconductor process with individually additional process steps to formdifferent layers for tuning the work function and achieving differentthreshold voltages.

In one aspect of the embodiments, there is provided a semiconductordevice including the structures of a substrate, a first transistor onthe substrate, wherein the first transistor includes a high-k dielectriclayer, a first bottom barrier metal layer on the high-k dielectriclayer, a second bottom barrier metal layer on the first bottom barriermetal layer, a work function metal layer on the second bottom barriermetal layer, and a low resistance metal on the work function metallayer, and a second transistor on the substrate, wherein the secondtransistor includes the high-k dielectric layer, the first bottombarrier metal layer on the high-k dielectric layer, the second bottombarrier metal layer on the first bottom barrier metal layer, and the lowresistance metal on the second bottom barrier metal layer, and a thirdtransistor on the substrate, wherein the third transistor comprises thehigh-k dielectric layer, the first bottom barrier metal layer on thehigh-k dielectric layer, and the low resistance metal on the firstbottom barrier metal layer, wherein the first transistor, the secondtransistor and the third transistor have same conductive type butdifferent threshold voltage.

In another aspect of the embodiments, there is provided a method ofmanufacturing semiconductor devices including the steps of providing asubstrate with a first active region, a second active region and a thirdactive region, forming dummy gates in the first active region, thesecond active region and the third active region, removing the dummygates to form trenches in the first active region, the second activeregion and the third active region, forming a high-k dielectric layer, afirst bottom barrier metal layer on the high-k dielectric layer, asecond bottom barrier metal layer on the first bottom barrier metallayer, and a first work function metal layer on the second bottombarrier metal layer in the trenches, removing the first work functionmetal layer from the second active region and the third active region,removing the second bottom barrier metal layer from the third region,and filling up each trench with a low resistance metal.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the embodiments, and are incorporated in and constituteapart of this specification. The drawings illustrate some of theembodiments and, together with the description, serve to explain theirprinciples. In the drawings:

FIGS. 1-7 are cross-sectional views depicting an exemplary process flowof manufacturing semiconductor devices with same conductive type butdifferent threshold voltages in accordance with the preferred embodimentof the present invention.

It should be noted that all the figures are diagrammatic. Relativedimensions and proportions of parts of the drawings have been shownexaggerated or reduced in size, for the sake of clarity and conveniencein the drawings. The same reference signs are generally used to refer tocorresponding or similar features in modified and different embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description of the present invention,reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereofand is shown by way of illustration and specific embodiments in whichthe invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described insufficient details to enable those skilled in the art to practice theinvention. Other embodiments may be utilized and structural, logical,and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope ofthe present invention. The following detailed description, therefore, isnot to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the presentinvention is defined by the appended claims.

Before describing the preferred embodiment in more detail, furtherexplanation shall be given regarding certain terms that may be usedthroughout the descriptions. The term “etch” or “etching” is used hereinto generally describe a fabrication process of patterning a material,such that at least a portion of the material remains after the etch iscompleted. For example, it should be understood that the process ofetching silicon involves the steps of patterning a masking layer (e.g.,photoresist or a hard mask) above the silicon, and then removing theareas of silicon no longer protected by the masking layer. As such, theareas of silicon protected by the mask would remain behind after theetch process is complete. However, in another example, etching may alsorefer to a process that does not use a mask, but still leaves behind atleast a portion of the material after the etch process is complete. Theabove description serves to distinguish the term “etching” from“removing.” When etching a material, at least a portion of the materialremains behind after the process is completed. In contrast, whenremoving a material, substantially all of the material is removed in theprocess. However, in some embodiments, ‘removing’ is considered to be abroad term that may incorporate etching.

During the descriptions herein, various regions of the substrate uponwhich the field-effect devices are fabricated are mentioned. It shouldbe understood that these regions may exist anywhere on the substrate andfurthermore that the, regions may not be mutually exclusive. That is, insome embodiments, portions of one or more regions may overlap. Althoughup to three different regions are described herein, it should beunderstood that any number of regions may exist on the substrate and maydesignate areas having certain types of devices or materials. Ingeneral, the regions are used to conveniently describe areas of thesubstrate that include similar devices and should not limit the scope orspirit of the described embodiments.

The terms “forming,” “form,” “deposit,” or “dispose” are used herein todescribe the act of applying a layer of material to the substrate. Suchterms are meant to describe any possible layer-forming techniqueincluding, but not limited to, thermal growth, sputtering, evaporation,chemical vapor deposition, epitaxial growth, electroplating, etc.According to various embodiments, for instance, deposition may beperformed according to any appropriate well-known method. For instance,deposition can comprise any process that grows, coats, or transfersmaterial onto a substrate. Some well-known technologies include physicalvapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), electrochemicaldeposition (ECD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), atomic layer deposition(ALD), and plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD), amongst others.

The “substrate” as used throughout the descriptions is most commonlythought to be silicon. However, the substrate may also be any of a widearray of semiconductor materials such as germanium, gallium arsenide,indium phosphide and etc. In other embodiments, the substrate may beelectrically non-conductive such as a glass or sapphire wafer.

FinFET (fin field-effect transistor) technology takes its name from thefact that the FET structure used looks like a set of fins when viewed.The main characteristic of the FinFET is that it has a conductingchannel wrapped by a thin silicon “fin” from which it gains its name.The thickness of the fin determines the effective channel length of thedevice. In terms of its structure, it typically has a vertical fin on asubstrate which runs between a larger drain and source area. Thisprotrudes vertically above the substrate as a fin. This form of gatestructure provides improved electrical control over the channelconduction and it helps reduce leakage current levels and overcomes someother short-channel effects.

Please refer to FIG. 1 to FIG. 7. FIG. 1 to FIG. 7 are schematicdiagrams depicting an exemplary process flow of manufacturingsemiconductor devices, such as fin field effect transistors (FinFET)with same conductive type but different threshold voltages according toone preferred embodiment of the present invention. It should be notedthat even though the following preferred embodiment pertains to a FinFETprocess, it would also be desirable to apply the process of thisembodiment to a planar MOS transistor, which is also within the scope ofthe present invention.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, a substrate 100 is provided, such as asilicon substrate, a silicon-containing substrate or asilicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, but is not limited thereto. Forthe FinFET process, the substrate 100 would be fin-shapedstructures/stripes preferably obtained by a conventional sidewall imagetransfer (SIT) process. A plurality of shallow trench isolations (STI)102 composed of silicon oxide are disposed on the substrate 100.According to the areas encompassed by the STI 102, a first active region200, a second active region 300 and a third active region 400, which areinsulated from each other, are defined on the substrate 100. In thepreferred embodiment of the present invention, the first active region200, a second active region 300 and a third active region 400 aredefined to be formed with semiconductor devices with same conductivetype but different threshold voltages thereon, such as the p-type FET(referred hereinafter as pFET) with high threshold voltage (HVT),standard threshold voltage (SVT), low threshold voltage (LVT), andultra-low threshold voltage (uLVT). Since in current semiconductormanufacture, pFET would require larger gate trench space for the workfunction metals (WFM) with various thicknesses to fill in and tune boththe threshold voltage of nFET (referred hereinafter as nFET) and pFET,pFET is easier to suffer insufficient gate trench space issue than thenFET, thus the transistors described in the embodiment are preferablypFET to demonstrate the advantages and purposes of the presentinvention.

In combination of the replacement metal gate (RMG) process, a dummytransistor 202, 302 or 402 will be first formed on each defined activeregion. It should be noted that the three defined active region regionsare preferably transistors regions having same conductive type, such asall being PMOS regions, and they are defined to fabricate gatestructures with different threshold voltages in the later process, itwould be desirable to form bottom barrier metal (BBM) and/or workfunction metal (WFM) layer having different thickness and/or differentnumber of layers in the regions after the dummy gates are transformedinto metal gates. An optical proximity correction (OPC) process may beperformed to adjust or pre-size the size of the gate trench or gatewidth so that the gate trench used to form gate having thicker and/ormore layers of BBM layer and/or WFM layers would become relatively widerthan the original gate trench size.

In one embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the first dummy transistor 202includes a first interfacial layer 204, a first sacrificial gate 206, afirst cap layer 208, first spacers 210, first lightly doped drains(LDDs) 212 and first source/drain 214. In one preferred embodiment ofthe present invention, the first interfacial layer 204 can be a SiO2layer. A etch stop layer (not shown), such as TiN may be optionallyformed between the first interfacial layer 204 and the first sacrificialgate 206. The first sacrificial gate 206 is a poly-silicon gate. Inanother embodiment, the first sacrificial gate 206 is a multi-layeredgate including a poly-silicon layer, an amorphous silicon layer or agermanium layer. The first cap layer 208 is a SiN layer for example. Thefirst spacer 210 can be a multi-layered structure including hightemperature oxide (HTO), SiN, SiON, SiCN. The first LDD 212 and thefirst source/drain 214 are formed by appropriate dopants implantation.In some embodiments, the first interfacial layer 204 and the first etchstop layer can be omitted.

Similarly, the second dummy transistor 302 may include a secondinterfacial layer 304, a second sacrificial gate 306, a second cap layer308, second spacers 310, second LDDs 312 and second source/drain 314.The components in the second transistor 302 of this embodiment aresimilar to those of the first transistor 202 and are therefore notdescribed repeatedly. The third dummy transistor 402 includes a thirdinterfacial layer 404, a third sacrificial gate 406, a third cap layer408, a third spacer 410, a third LDD 412 and a third source/drain 414.The components in the third dummy transistor 402 of this embodiment aresimilar to those of the first dummy transistor 202 and are therefore notdescribed repeatedly. It is noted that since the first active region200, a second active region 300 and a third active region 400 aredefined to be formed with semiconductor devices with different thresholdvoltages thereon, some components of these transistors may be different.For instance, the first source/drain 214, the second source/drain 314and the third source/drain 414 have dopants of same conductive type,however, the implant energy and dosage thereof can be different. Inaddition, first dummy transistor 202, the second dummy transistor 302and the third dummy transistor 402 may further include othersemiconductor structures that are not explicitly shown in FIG. 1, suchas a silicide layer, the epitaxial layer made of SiGe, SiC, or SiPformed by selective epitaxial growth (SEG), or other protective films.

After forming the first dummy transistor 202, the second dummytransistor 302 and the third dummy transistor 402, a contact etch stoplayer (CESL) 102 and an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) layer 104 areformed on the substrate 300 to cover the first dummy transistor 202, thesecond dummy transistor 302 and the third dummy transistor 402. In oneembodiment, the CESL 102 can generate different stresses in the firstactive region 200, the second active region 300 and the third activeregion 400 to form a selective strain scheme (SSS) for the first dummytransistor 202, the second dummy transistor 302 and the third dummytransistor 402, respectively.

Please refer now to FIG. 2. a planarization process, such as a chemicalmechanical polish (CMP) process or an etching-back process orcombination thereof is performed to remove a part of the ILD layer 104,a part of the CESL 102, a part of the first spacer 210, a part of thesecond spacer 310, apart of the third spacer 410 and completely removethe first cap layer 208, the second cap layer 308 and the third caplayer 408, until the first sacrificial gate 206, the second sacrificialgate 306 and the third sacrificial gate 406 composed of poly-silicon areexposed.

Please refer to FIG. 3. After first sacrificial gate 206, the secondsacrificial gate 306 and the third sacrificial gate 406 are exposed, areplacement metal gate (RMG) process is conducted to transform the dummygates into metal gates. For instance, a selective dry etching or wetetching process may be conducted by using etchant including ammoniumhydroxide (NH₄OH) or tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) to remove thefirst sacrificial gate 206, the second sacrificial gate 306 and thethird sacrificial gate 406 until the first interfacial layer 204, thesecond interfacial layer 304 and the third interfacial layer 404 areexposed. Gate trenches 200 a, 300 a and 400 a are therefore formedrespectively on the active region 200, 300 and 400 as the filling spacefor metal gates. In some embodiment, the etch process removing thesacrificial gates may also remove the interfacial layer 204, 304, 404.It should be noted that since the dummy gates on the substrate may havedifferent sizes, the gate trenches 200 a, 300 a and 400 a formed afterremoving the dummy gates may also have different sizes.

Please refer again to FIG. 3. After the gate trenches are formed, ahigh-k dielectric layer 106 is formed comformally on the surface of thesubstrate and the gate trenches. The high-k dielectric layer 106 has adielectric constant greater than 4, and the material thereof includesrare earth metal oxides or lanthanide oxides, such as hafnium oxide(HfO₂), hafnium silicon oxide (HfSiO₄), hafnium silicon oxynitride(HfSiON), aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), lanthanum oxide (La₂O₃), lanthanumaluminum oxide (LaAlO), tantalum oxide (Ta₂O₅), zirconium oxide (ZrO₂),zirconium silicon oxide (ZrSiO₄), hafnium zirconium oxide (HfZrO),yttrium oxide (Yb₂O₃), yttrium silicon oxide (YbSiO), zirconiumaluminate (ZrAlO), hafnium aluminate (HfAlO), aluminum nitride (AlN),titanium oxide (TiO₂), zirconium oxynitride (ZrON), hafnium oxynitride(HfON), zirconium silicon oxynitride (ZrSiON), hafnium siliconoxynitride (HfSiON), strontium bismuth tantalite (SrBi₂Ta₂O₉, SBT), leadzirconate titanate (PbZr_(x)Ti_(1-x)O₃, PZT) or barium strontiumtitanate (BaXSr_(1-x)TiO₃, BST), but is not limited thereto.

Refer still to FIG. 3. After the high-k dielectric layer 106 is formed,a first bottom barrier metal (BBM) layer 108 and a second BBM layer 110are formed comformally and successively along the surface of the high-kdielectric layer 106 on each active region. The BBM layers 108 and 110act as a barrier for protecting either one of the metals at both sidesfrom corrupting the other due to the thermal diffusion orelectro-migration. The material of the two BBM layer may includetitanium (Ti), titanium nitride (TiN), tantalum (Ta), tantalum nitride(TaN) or tungsten nitride (WN). In the preferred embodiment wherein thepredetermined transistors are p-type transistors, the first BBM layer108 is titanium nitride (TiN) and the second BBM layer 110 is tantalumnitride (TaN). The first BBM layer 108 and the second BBM layer 110 mayhave different thickness.

Please refer now to FIG. 4. After the high-k dielectric layer 106, thefirst BBM layer 108 and a second BBM layer 110 are formed, a workfunction metal layer (referred hereinafter as PWFM layer) 112 for tuningthe threshold voltage of the pFET is formed conformally along thesurface of the second BBM layer 110. The PWFM layer 112 may have athickness ranging from about 5 angstroms to about 10 angstroms. For pFETdevices, the work function metal layer should have a work functionranging between 4.8 eV and 5.2 eV. The adequate material of the PWFMlayer 112 in this eV range may include, but not be limited to, titaniumnitride (TiN), ruthenium (Ru), iridium (Ir), platinum (Pt), tungstennitride (WN), molybdenum nitride (Mo₂N), tantalum nitride (TaN),tantalum carbide (TaC), but it is not limited thereto.

In the semiconductor transistor whose gate critical dimension (CD) isscaled down to the level below 20 nm, the PWFM layer 112 together withthe high-k dielectric layer 106 and the BBM layer 108 and 110 wouldoccupy a lot of space in the originally narrow gate trench. This willmake other gate components more difficult to be filled into the trenchin later processes. In order to make room for these gate components, apull-down process is performed to remove the portion of the PWFM layer112 above a predetermined level in the trench. This pull-down processmay include the step of filling a mask 114 on the PWFM layer 112 in thegate trench. The surface of the mask 114 is controlled at apredetermined level. After the mask 114 is filled, an etch process isperformed to remove the PWFM layer 112. In this etch process, theportion of PWFM layer 112 above the predetermined level of the mask 114is removed so that only a U-shaped portion of the PWFM layer 112 remainsin the gate trench. The pull-down of the PWFM layer 112 may be carriedout in a selective directional etching process, such as areactive-ion-etching (RIE) process that may be made and/or chemicallyadjusted to be selective to material of PWFM layer 112. As a result ofthis selective etching process, only the unnecessary portion of PWFMlayer 112 may be etched away and the underlying BBM layer 110 remainsintact or substantially intact. The removal of a portion of the PWFMlayer 112 above the predetermined level would increase the size of thetrench opening and allow other gate components, such as the n-type workfunction metals and low resistance metal to be more easily filled intothe trench in later process.

Please refer now to FIG. 5. After the U-shaped PWFM layer 112 is formed,the mask 114 will be stripped out to expose the surface of the PWFMlayer 112. A n-type work function metal layer (referred hereinafter asNWFM layer) 116 for tuning the threshold voltage of the nFET is thenformed conformally along the surface of the U-shaped PWFM layer 112 andthe second BBM layer 110. Since the opening of the gate trench isbroaden by the removal of the upper portion of the PWFM layer 112 inprevious steps, the NWFM layer 116 is ready to be formed in the gatetrench. Please note that, since the present invention is dedicated tosolve the problem of insufficient filling space for pFET gate componentand demonstrating the characteristics of pFETs with different thresholdvoltages, the nFETs device will not be shown in the drawing for thesimplicity and clarity of the disclosure. The NWFM layer 116 formed inthis process is just to emphasize that the pFET and nFET devices may bemanufactured simultaneously in the same process flow in the presentinvention. In some embodiments, the NWFM layer 116 may have a thicknessranging from about 5 angstroms to about 10 angstroms. For nFET devices,the work function metal layer should have a work function rangingbetween 3.9 eV and 4.3 eV may include titanium aluminide (TiAl),zirconium aluminide (ZrAl), tungsten aluminide (WAl), tantalum aluminide(TaAl), hafnium aluminide (HfAl), or titanium aluminum carbide (TiAlC),but it is not limited thereto.

Please refer now to FIG. 6. After the U-shaped PWFM layer 112 and theNWFM layer 116 are formed, each predefined active region 200, 300 and400 will be performed individually with different processes to changethe gate components predetermined to be disposed in the regions andrender them with the characteristics of different threshold voltages. Inthe preferred embodiment, the active regions 200, 300 and 400 aredefined as the SVT, LVT and uLVT areas, respectively. First, as the NWFMlayer 116 is only necessary in nFET region (not shown), the NWFM layer116 on the pFET active region 200, 300 and 400 should be completelyremoved. This process may include the steps of coating all nFET regionswith a photoresist as an etch mask and then performing a selective etchprocess to remove the NWFM layer 116 on the pFET active region. Afterthe NWFM layer 116 is removed, the U-shaped PWFM layers 112 are exposedin each pFET active region 200, 300 and 400.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, since the activeregion 200 is defined as a region for the pFET with standard thresholdvoltage, the U-shaped PWFM layer 112 is necessary in this region fortuning the standard threshold voltage. While the active region 300 andthe active region 400 are defined as regions for transistors with lowthreshold voltage and ultra low threshold voltage, they will need moretrench space to tune the low voltage. For the purpose described above,the U-shaped PWFM layer 112 in the active region 300 and the activeregion 400 should be removed. This process may include the steps ofcoating the active regions 200 with a photoresist as an etch mask andthen performing a selective etch process to remove the PWFM layer 112 onthe active regions 300 and 400. After the PWFM layer 112 is removed, thesecond (upper) BBM layer 110 are completely exposed in the active region300 and 400, while the U-shaped PWFM layer 112 still remains in theactive region 200.

Though the PWFM layer 112 is removed from the active region 300 and theactive region 400, the active region 400 still need more trench space inorder to tuning ultra-low threshold voltage compared to the one ofactive region 300. For the purpose described above, another process maybe performed to remove the second (upper) BBM layer 110 in the gatetrench 400 a of the active region 400. This process may include thesteps of coating the active regions 200 and 300 with a photoresist as anetch mask and then performing a selective etch process to remove thesecond BBM layer 110 in the gate trench 400 a of the active region 400.The second BBM layer 110 outsides of the gate trench 400 a in the activeregion 400 may not be removed. The key point is to make more room in thegate trench for voltage tuning.

In the case of the active region 300 for LVT and the active region 400for uLVT, it should be noted that the second BBM layer 110 and the firstBBM layer 108 may be preferably made of tungsten nitride (WN), but notlimited thereto. In the embodiment of the present invention, theWN-based BBM layers 108 or 110 may also acts as a work function layerwith work function about 5 eV, which is an excellent work functioncharacteristic for the low threshold voltage devices. This is the reasonwhy the U-shaped PWFM layer 112 of the present invention is not requiredin the active regions 300 or the active regions 400, since the BBM layercan achieve both the functions of diffusion barrier and work functiontuning in the device. For the active region 400 with more trench space,the work function can be tuned even lower to the level of uLVT byforming thicker WN-based first (lower) BBM layer 108. In the embodimentof the present invention, the wider trench space provides more tuningwindow for the active regions 400.

Please now refer to FIG. 7. After the gate components for tuning workfunctions are prepared individually for each active region, a lowresistance metal 118 is formed filling up each gate trench, and aplanarizing process, such as CMP, is conducted to remove the portion ofthe low resistance metal 118, the second BBM layer 110, the first BBMlayer 108 and the high-k dielectric layer 106 outsides the gate trench.The transistor 216, 316 and 416 with different threshold voltages aretherefore formed respectively in the active region 200, 300 and 400. Thematerial of low resistance metal 118 may include Al, Ti, Ta, W, Nb, Mo,TiN, TiC, TaN, Ti/W or Ti/TiN, but is not limited thereto.

Conventionally, there will be a top barrier metal (TBM, now shown)formed between the low resistance metal and the underlying work functionmetal layer to prevent the diffusive corruption therebetween. However,in the case that the metal gates 302 and 402 is not provided withregular work function layer, and instead, using the WN-based BBM layeras a work function metal layer, the TBM may not be required in the metalgates 302 and 402.

Since the transistor 216, 316 and 416 have different structures, theycan exhibit different electrical performance. In detail, the transistor216 has the largest threshold voltage (SVT), the transistor 316 has themiddle one and the transistor 416 has the smallest one. In oneembodiment, the threshold voltage of the transistor 216 is about 0.3V to0.6V, the threshold voltage of the transistor 316 is about 0.2V to 0.3V,and the threshold voltage of the transistor 416 is about 0.1V to 0.2V.

In summary, the present invention provides a semiconductor structurehaving plural transistors and the forming method. It is featured thatthe formed transistors have same conductive type but with different gatecomponents. For example, in the preferred embodiment, the semiconductordevice includes a first transistor 216, a second transistor 316, and athird transistor 416. The first transistor 216 includes a high-kdielectric layer 106, a first bottom barrier metal layer 108 on thehigh-k dielectric layer 106, a second bottom barrier metal layer 110 onthe first bottom barrier metal layer 108, and a work function metallayer 112 on the second bottom barrier metal layer 110, and a lowresistance metal 118 on the work function metal layer 112. The secondtransistor 316 includes the high-k dielectric layer 106, the firstbottom barrier metal layer 108 on the high-k dielectric layer 106, thesecond bottom barrier metal layer 110 on the first bottom barrier metallayer 108, and the low resistance metal 118 on the second bottom barriermetal layer 110. The third transistor 416 includes the high-k dielectriclayer 106, the first bottom barrier metal layer 108 on the high-kdielectric layer 106, and the low resistance metal 118 on the firstbottom barrier metal layer 108. Due to the different gate components,the electrical performance of the transistors may be individually tunedand provides them with the characteristic of different thresholdvoltages.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerousmodifications and alterations of the device and method may be made whileretaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the abovedisclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and boundsof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of manufacturing semiconductor devices,comprising the steps of: providing a substrate with a first activeregion, a second active region and a third active region; forming dummygates in said first active region, said second active region and saidthird active region; removing said dummy gates to form trenches in saidfirst active region, said second active region and said third activeregion; forming a high-k dielectric layer, a first bottom barrier metallayer on said high-k dielectric layer, a second bottom barrier metallayer on said first bottom barrier metal layer, and a first workfunction metal layer on said second bottom barrier metal layer in saidtrenches; removing said first work function metal layer from said secondactive region and said third active region; removing said second bottombarrier metal layer from said third region; and filling up each saidtrench with a low resistance metal.
 2. The method of manufacturingsemiconductor devices of claim 1, further comprising performing an etchprocess to remove a portion of said first work function metal layerabove a predetermined level so that said first work function metal layeris in U-shape.
 3. The method of manufacturing semiconductor devices ofclaim 2, further comprising forming a second work function metal layeron said U-shaped first work function metal layer, wherein said secondwork function metal layer and said first work function metal layer isfor transistors with different conductive types.
 4. The method ofmanufacturing semiconductor devices of claim 2, further comprisingremoving said second work function metal layer on said first activeregion, said second active region and said third active region.
 5. Themethod of manufacturing semiconductor devices of claim 1, furthercomprising performing a chemical mechanical polishing process to removesaid high-k dielectric layer, said first bottom barrier metal layer,said second bottom barrier metal layer outside said trenches.